Kewanee a finalist in ‘best small town’ online competition

Kewanee has been named a finalist in the “Friendliest” category of the Rand McNally Best of the Road Small Towns Contest for 2013.

This is due, largely, to the voting efforts of townspeople, working together to focus on the “Friendliest” category (out of 6 possibilities) as the best representation of the town.

Kewanee received the honor due to votes cast online.

Finalist towns were notified last week and e-mails were sent out to city officials. They have three days to respond, or the town will be disqualified.

Each finalist is to create a three-minute video, a 24-photo slideshow, and a 600-word essay explaining why their town should win the grand prize and be named best in their category.

Kewanee’s video was shot over Hog Days weekend, and is being finalized, along with the essay and the slideshow.

Other finalists in the category are Macon, Ga., Bradenton, Fla., Murray, Ky. (the 2012 winner of this category) and Keokuk, Iowa. The deadline for the additional materials is Sept. 27.

Rand McNally and USA Today will send a crew to each town, to document the town in video, meet the people, and get a feel for why they are the best in their category. Kewanee city leaders are preparing for this visit now, and request the cooperation of local residents, in the similar spirit to hosting the Walldogs.

The grand prize winner of each category will be featured in a documentary that will air on the Travel Channel.

The other categories were Most Beautiful, Best for Food, Most Patriotic, Most Fun, and Best for Geocaching.

Kewanee city leaders say this documentary could bring attention to the town, riding a wave of good feelings after this summer’s Walldogs meet and the Halestorm concert to benefit St. Jude Hospitals.

Online voting began at the beginning of July, after Kewanee was nominated along with 1,157 other towns, each with a population under 150,000. Voters were to sign up, using their e-mail address, to vote on the Rand McNally Best of the Road website (www.bestoftheroad.com) and could vote once a day until Sept. 3.

Kewanee got off to a slow start, with only about 40 votes by the end of July, but quickly gained momentum through the cheerleading efforts of the Kewanee Walldogs Facebook page (www.facebook.com/kewaneewalldogs). The page was created to follow the events of the Walldogs meet this summer, and has since been used to celebrate Kewanee in the arts, as well as for town causes, fellowship and community spirit.

By the time voting closed, Kewanee had garnered 2,441 votes, winning eighth place in overall votes, and 2,284 of those votes were in the “Friendliest” category, giving Kewanee first place in the voting portion of the contest.